What happens when you buy a website? Here are the stages!1 – Purchase the website!2 – Upload your “Actor’s Stuff”. Don’t worry! We guide you through this with ideas and examples. Plus, you can go back and add/change anything later! Some key items you’ll decide on include:

4 – Then we build your site for you! Your site will be live within the week. You’ll also receive:

• A Username/Password for admin access. • Our online user guide, which answers further questions that you might have.

How to upgrade from Prime to Pro

The Prime package comes with a ton of stuff. The Pro package adds in Audio and Video pages, a more sophisticated contact form, domain email, and a blogging/news system. Upgrading is $99, but we prorate that to match the annual timing. So if you’re 9 months into your year, the charge will be $75. The minimum charge is $50. To upgrade, just contact us and we’ll do it for you!

What is the ‘Guarantee?’

Go ahead, purchase your site, upload your materials, and we’ll build the site for you! If you’re not happy, let us know within 7 days after it goes live (that’s a whole week to look at your site!) and we’ll try to resolve any problem. If you just don’t like it, then we’ll give you your money back. To be honest, we make this offer because we know everyone will be happy!

Customizations

First off, we’ve built these sites so you NEVER NEED TO HIRE anyone to do anything for you. But alas, there may be a time when you want to change something on the site beyond the norm. Or you’d just prefer us to do the updates for you. Most basic work can be done for under $50. This includes swapping pictures, changing positions, custom colors, etc. Contact us and we can figure out the scope of your needs and give you a price estimate.

File Types of Photos, Videos, Audio

PHOTOS Should be in .jpg or .png format.VIDEO First upload your videos to either “YouTube.com” or “Vimeo.com” (both are free services). Then send us the URL link to each video (the address bar of the web page).AUDIO Upload your audio to “SoundCloud.com” for free (it’s the YouTube of the audio world). Send us URL links to each file, just like for ‘video’ above.Why do we use these services? Because they are massive worldwide systems that are fast and reliable. And they’re free and easy, so why not?

Sizes for Photos

ASPECT Any of your pictures can be in portait (vertical) or landscape (horizontal) ratio.PIXEL DIMENSIONS Since website’s don’t require overly large pictures (and it slows down your site if they are too large), the system will automatically shrink all pictures to be no greater than 1200px in either direction. We recomend not uploading pictures smaller than 500px and there is no need for greater than 1200px.FILE SIZE Most pictures on websites should be in the 10-100kb (kilobytes) range for fast downloading. Our phones nowadays take pictures in the 3-5mb (megabytes, which are 1,000 times large than kilobytes) range. Try to send us web-optimized photos. If not, we will automatically shrink their size for you.SPECIAL CONSIDERATION FOR HOME PAGE PICTURES If you decide to use the design of 2 or 3 pictures side by side, as shown on some of our examples sites, please keep in mind that the vertical height of the picture’s should match, unless you are ok with mixed heights (which is fine, just a design choice).

Why PDF format for Resumes?

PDF is the industry standard for sending resumes; whether you’re a stockbroker or an actor, it’s what casting directors expect. Word documents are acceptable, but more prone to issues.What if I don’t have my resume in PDF format? No problem! Most programs (Word, etc.) have a ‘Save to PDF’ option. Otherwise, there are free converters online where you just drag-and-drop your file in, and out pops a PDF. Here are some we recomend:

Because of its complexity, email does not come fully set up with any of the packages. This is in keeping with other companies (Wix, Squarespace, etc), but we are happy to help you set it up if you need it. With that said, our first recommendation is:1 – Use the email you already have. Why re-invent the wheel? If people have been emailing you for years, then it’s best not to switch to a new account!2 – Get a free Gmail account from Google. YourName@gmail.com, or the closest you can get to that, is a great way to go. Google truly does have the best email system out there. It’s also free and simple.3 – Optional domain email from ActingWebsites. If you bought the Pro package, you have the option of getting an email account that is: name@YourDomainName.com. First you need to have your domain and website up and running (so that it’s ‘propagated’ throughout the web) and then you can write to us requesting an email account. Let us know what you want as the first part (your name) and the rest will be your .com’s name. So, for example, it might be John@JohnDoe.com. This will be an regular IMAP account and we will provide you with instructions to set it up with email applications so you can send and receive emails.

Domains

Domains – Definition

A “DOMAIN” is also called a “URL” or “SITE ADDRESS”. It’s what you type in to get to Microsoft.com, or Comcast.net. A DOMAIN consists of TWO things:

1 – The site name (eg: Microsoft.com) 2 – And an ‘address’ to the server where that site is located (hosted).

EXAMPLE: When YOU type in “Microsoft.com”, the DOMAIN REGISTRAR tells the internet to send you over to the MICROSOFT SERVER (a computer sitting in California) where the website data exists. You must REGISTER (buy) a DOMAIN to get that pointer for your site.

STILL NOT UNDERSTANDING? Ok, hopefully this helps…> A WEBSITE is the actual code that is your site. It’s the design and presentation.> A DOMAIN is something you purchase to give your WEBSITE a name, and also point people to the address of the WEBSITE.

‘Domains’ – Why you need to purchase one.

If you haven’t registered your domain name, your site will be ActorsWebsites.com/YourName instead of YourName.com. This is why you need to register a name. Once you have a registered domain name, contact us to let us know what the final URL is and we’ll convert your site to it.

Domains – How to Purchase & Link

WHERE TO PURCHASE A DOMAIN NAME:Don’t be fooled by fancy marketing. Squarespace offers ‘free’ domains with your first year, but they don’t tell you they charge between $20-70 per year afterward! We’re currently working on a way to bring super-low prices of domain names to our customers. But until we work that out, we can recomend places where you can purchase Domains for as little as $8:

• GKG.net has been in business since the early days of the internet. They have good prices and we ourselves have used them for our own domain name purchases. They don’t upsell you later, which we like. The price you pay this year is probably the same price you’ll pay next year.

• Google Domains is, of course, very reliable and safe. We find their prices a little bit higher than GKG, but there’s that branding thing.

• GoDaddy is a marketing monster. But they are scammy and we don’t recomend. They will give you an initially low price and then the following year charge you 2-3 times that amount.

STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE:

We’ll show you GKG.net‘s forms, but the idea applies to any Domain Registration company:

1 – Choose your domain name.

2 – If it’s available, great! If not, alternatives will be presented:

3 – The Up-Sell. This is where you’ll be pushed to buy something else. DON’T DO IT. We’re already giving you what you need. In this case, they’re trying to sell you hosting, but ActingWebsites.com is already your host. So “Skip”.

4 – NameServer. This is where you actually “Point” your Domain to your Website (see “Domains – Definition” above). Just type in ns1.biggianthosting.com on the first line, and ns2.biggianthosting.com on the second. If your form has more, just leave them blank. Big Giant is the cute name we called our server system! The rest is just your contact and credit card info.

THAT’S IT! Not really so bad. So go and get your domain now!

Domains – How to Transfer

IF YOU PREVIOUSLY OWNED A DOMAIN NAME You might just need to ‘transfer’ (ie: link) it to us: Sign in to your registrar (whomever your bought the domain name from). There should be a place to “Manage” your domain. You’ll find a setting for “DNS” or “NAMESERVER”. Just type in ns1.biggianthosting.com on the first line, and ns2.biggianthosting.com on the second. If your form has more, just leave them blank. Save it and you’re done!! – Big Giant is the cute name we called our server system!

Oh wait… Did we mention the Money Back Guarantee?

Buying a website can be scary. We make it easier.

Purchase the website, we’ll set it up. We’re so sure that you’ll be happy, that we’re offering your money back if you don’t like it. Who else is offering that?